Submitted by UANDERSON REBULA DE OLIVEIRA null (grc@unesp.br) on 2016-04-19T05:50:16Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Uanderson - versão final.pdf: 15907044 bytes, checksum: 28e3e51a30e15b09c634a073c9b7eb35 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Juliano Benedito Ferreira (julianoferreira@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2016-04-25T18:24:33Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 oliveira_ur_me_guara.pdf: 15907044 bytes, checksum: 28e3e51a30e15b09c634a073c9b7eb35 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T18:24:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 oliveira_ur_me_guara.pdf: 15907044 bytes, checksum: 28e3e51a30e15b09c634a073c9b7eb35 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-24 / A venda de Equipamentos Eletroeletrônicos (EEE) cresce em razão das inovações tecnológicas e da rapidez com que eles se tornam obsoletos, o que implica o aumento da geração de um resíduo sólido denominado Resíduo de Equipamento Eletroeletrônico (REEE). O REEE é um problema relevante, visto que contém diversas substâncias tóxicas capazes de provocar danos ao meio ambiente e à saúde humana. Dessa forma, torna-se necessário um gerenciamento ambientalmente adequado. Após a criação da Política Nacional de Resíduos Sólidos (PNRS) no Brasil, passou a caber a fabricantes, importadores, distribuidores e comerciantes de EEE o dever de implementar sistemas de Logística Reversa (LR), os quais objetivam o retorno dos produtos após o uso pelo consumidor. Apesar de o setor de Eletroeletrônicos se preocupar com a LR de seus produtos, constatou-se, na literatura, que a LR do REEE é um tema ainda pouco explorado, tanto no âmbito nacional quanto no internacional, como evidencia a carência de trabalhos práticos nessa área. Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo identificar como a gestão de REEE pode contribuir para a melhoria do desempenho da cadeia de suprimentos de EEE no Brasil, no contexto da sustentabilidade ambiental. Para tanto, adotou-se um método de pesquisa de natureza aplicada, com abordagem qualitativa, objetivo exploratório e normativo e uso de procedimentos técnicos, tais como levantamento bibliográfico, análise documental e ex-post facto. A Revisão Sistemática da Literatura possibilitou identificar: o histórico, o panorama e as perspectivas, global e brasileira, para a melhoria do desempenho da gestão de REEE no contexto da sustentabilidade ambiental; boas práticas internacionais em gestão de REEE, as quais sugerem melhorias para o desempenho da gestão de REEE no Brasil; e boas práticas de uso das tecnologias de identificação de produtos, tal como a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), nos sistemas de LR dos REEE, a exemplo do Projeto Smartwaste da Hewlett-Packard (HP). / The sale of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) grows in terms of technological innovation and the speed with which they become obsolete, reflecting the increase in the generation of a solid residue called electro-electronic equipment waste (WEEE). The WEEE is a major problem, as it has several toxic substances capable of causing damage to the environment and human health. Thus, an environmentally proper management becomes necessary. With the creation of the National Policy on Solid Waste (NPSW) in Brazil, manufacturers, importers, distributors and EEE traders should implement Reverse Logistics systems (RL) by return of products after use by the consumer. Although the electronics industry to worry about the LR of its products, found in the literature that the LR of WEEE is presented as a relatively unexplored subject, both nationally and internationally, showing lack of practical work in this area. The research aims to identify how the management of WEEE can contribute to improving the performance of EEE supply chain in Brazil, in the context of environmental sustainability. Therefore, we adopted a method of nature applied research, with a qualitative approach with exploratory and normative goal, and use of technical procedures, such as literature, document analysis and ex-post facto. A Systematic Review of the Literature possible to identify: the history, the outlook and prospects, global and Brazilian, to the improvement of WEEE management performance in the context of environmental sustainability; best international practices in the management of WEEE, suggesting improvements to the WEEE management performance in Brazil; and good practice in the use of product identification technologies such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in LR systems of WEEE, such as the Smartwaste Hewlett-Packard Project (HP).

Em 2013, foi implantado no Brasil o Programa Nacional de Segurança do Paciente (PNSP), que através da Resolução RDC No 36, prevê que as instituições de saúde brasileiras devem apresentar um Plano de Segurança do Paciente (PSP) para as situações que possam proporcionar a ocorrência de eventos adversos (EAs), ou seja, lesão ou dano não intencional causado ao paciente pela intervenção assistencial e não pela doença base. O PSP é um documento com embasamento científico que aponta as situações de risco e descreve estratégias e ações definidas pelo serviço de saúde para a gestão do risco com objetivo de prevenção e redução dos EA em todas as fases da assistência. O implante de eletrodos para estimulação encefálica profunda (EEP) é um procedimento realizado rotineiramente no Hospital Marcelino Champagnat (HMC), localizado na cidade de Curitiba – PR, para melhorar a sintomatologia e a qualidade de vida de pacientes portadores de determinados distúrbios neurológicos crônicos. A confiabilidade e a precisão do posicionamento dos eletrodos cerebrais após a implantação de sistemas de EEP é de suma importância para a eficácia do método, sendo a Imagem por Ressonância Magnética (IRM) pós-operatória, atualmente, o padrão ouro para documentação do correto posicionamento dos eletrodos. Entretanto, a interação do sistema de EEP com o campo de radiofrequência do equipamento de IRM pode constituir uma fonte de EAs, uma vez que possibilita a indução de correntes elétricas com potencial de causar lesões térmicas ao paciente em locais de alta resistência. As recomendações de segurança dos fabricantes para a maioria dos sistemas de EEP implantados são bastante restritivas e resultam em longos tempos de exame ou em imagens de baixa qualidade, fatores que dificultam a prática em muitos centros. Estudos in vitro revelam que o aquecimento excessivo ocorre sob determinadas configurações, enquanto outras não oferecem risco fisiológico ao paciente. Estudos clínicos com base em vasta experiência sustentam a evidência de que é possível realizar exames pós-operatórios de forma satisfatória e sem a ocorrência de EAs utilizando parâmetros menos restritivos que aqueles determinados pelos fabricantes, desde que alguns padrões de segurança sejam cuidadosamente seguidos. Dessa forma, o presente trabalho propõe a elaboração de um PSP para a situação específica de pacientes com sistemas de EEP submetidos à exames de IRM no HMC, com base nas recomendações de segurança do fabricante e na revisão sistemática da literatura. De acordo com a base de dados consultada, um total de 26 artigos científicos foram considerados relevantes e permitiram identificar as possíveis fontes de risco de forma a evitá-las, colaborando com a conclusão satisfatória do PSP. Além de suprir a demanda local, o presente trabalho visou também promover a cultura de segurança do paciente e despertar a atenção para a necessidade de interposição de barreiras às diversas oportunidades de EAs que os setores de radiologia podem oferecer. A metodologia aqui proposta pode servir, ainda, de base para que outros centros de diagnóstico por imagem componham seus próprios PSPs. / In 2013, the National Program Patient Safety (PNSP) was implemented in Brazil through Resolution RDC 36, providing that the Brazilian health institutions must have a Patient Safety Plan (PSP) for situations that may lead to adverse events (AEs), which are unintentional injury or damage caused to the patient by the health care intervention and not by the primary disease. The PSP is a document with scientific basis that points to hazardous situations and describes strategies and actions defined by the health service for risk management in order to prevent and reduce AEs in all phases of patient care. Implantation of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) devices is considered a routine procedure at the Hospital Marcelino Champagnat (HMC), located in Curitiba – PR, and it consists in a practice widely used to improve symptoms and quality of life of patients with certain chronic neurological disorders.The reliability and accuracy of the final brain positioning of the leads, after the DBS implantation are of paramount importance to assure efficacy. Currently, post-operative Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is the gold standard for the documentation of the correct lead positioning. However, the interaction between the DBS system and the MRI radiofrequency field could represent an important source of adverse events (EAs) since it allows electric currents induction with potential to cause local thermal injuries on high resistance sites. The safety recommendations from the DBS system manufacturers for most of the already deployed systems are quite restrictive resulting in long examination times or low quality images, which compromises the practice in many centers. Thus, the present work proposes the development of a PSP based on the manufacturer's safety recommendations and a systematic review of the literature to the specific situation of patients with DBS systems undergoing MRI scans at the HMC. We found a total of 26 papers, that were considered relevant and allowed us to identify the potential sources of risk in order to avoid them, collaborating to the successful elaboration of the PSP. Besides supplying local demand, this work also aims to promote patient safety and draw attention to the need of interposing barriers in order to avoid significant AEs situations that a radiology department may be presented with. Moreover, the methodology proposed here can serve as a basis for other imaging centers to compose their own PSPs.

Neste trabalho, considera-se uma rede sem fio cooperativa em que múltiplas fontes com restrições energéticas cooperam para transmitir informações independentes a um destino comum. Assume-se também que toda a energia disponível nas fontes é captada a partir de transmissões de radiofrequência realizadas pelo destino (o qual é considerado não possuir restrições de energia), sendo dependente das condições instantâneas do canal. Dessa forma, estabelece-se um protocolo de comutação temporal em que em parte do tempo as fontes são carregadas pelo destino, e no restante do tempo transmitem as suas informações. Utilizando-se a probabilidade de outage comométrica de desempenho, analisa-se o desempenho de alguns protocolos cooperativos com transferência sem fio de energia, a saber: decodifica-e-encaminha(EDF), cooperação por codificação de rede (ENC) e cooperação por codificação de rede generalizada (EGNC). Expressões fechadas são desenvolvidas para calcular a probabilidade de outage dos protocolos cooperativos descritos acima, assim como o tempo de carregamento ótimo para minimizar a referida probabilidade e a máxima taxa alcançável para uma probabilidade de outage alvo, mostrando que o protocolo EGNC apresenta o melhor desempenho dentre os protocolos cooperativos considerados e que a transmissão direta (sem cooperação). Simulações numéricas são realizadas para se comprovar a precisão das expressões desenvolvidas e finalmente se enumeram sugestões para a continuação do trabalho. / In this work, we consider a multiuser cooperative wireless network where multiple energy-constrained sources have independent information to transmit to a common destination. The destination, which is assumed to be externally powered, is responsible for transferring energy wirelessly to the sources. The total amount of harvested energy is a function of instantaneous channel conditions. In this scenario, a time-switching protocol is developed where in a fraction of time the sources harvest energy and then use this energy to transmit information. Using the outage probability as a metric, we evaluate the performance of some energy transfer cooperative protocols, namely: energy transfer decode-and-forward (EDF), energy transfer network coding cooperation (ENC) and energy transfer generalized network coding cooperation (EGNC). We obtain a closed-form approximation for the system outage probability, as well as an approximation for the optimal energy transfer period that minimizes such outage probability showing that EGNC protocol presents the best performance among the considered protocols and when compared with the direct transmission. Numerical results are also presented to validate the theoretical results. Finally, suggestions about future works are presented.

Em 2013, foi implantado no Brasil o Programa Nacional de Segurança do Paciente (PNSP), que através da Resolução RDC No 36, prevê que as instituições de saúde brasileiras devem apresentar um Plano de Segurança do Paciente (PSP) para as situações que possam proporcionar a ocorrência de eventos adversos (EAs), ou seja, lesão ou dano não intencional causado ao paciente pela intervenção assistencial e não pela doença base. O PSP é um documento com embasamento científico que aponta as situações de risco e descreve estratégias e ações definidas pelo serviço de saúde para a gestão do risco com objetivo de prevenção e redução dos EA em todas as fases da assistência. O implante de eletrodos para estimulação encefálica profunda (EEP) é um procedimento realizado rotineiramente no Hospital Marcelino Champagnat (HMC), localizado na cidade de Curitiba – PR, para melhorar a sintomatologia e a qualidade de vida de pacientes portadores de determinados distúrbios neurológicos crônicos. A confiabilidade e a precisão do posicionamento dos eletrodos cerebrais após a implantação de sistemas de EEP é de suma importância para a eficácia do método, sendo a Imagem por Ressonância Magnética (IRM) pós-operatória, atualmente, o padrão ouro para documentação do correto posicionamento dos eletrodos. Entretanto, a interação do sistema de EEP com o campo de radiofrequência do equipamento de IRM pode constituir uma fonte de EAs, uma vez que possibilita a indução de correntes elétricas com potencial de causar lesões térmicas ao paciente em locais de alta resistência. As recomendações de segurança dos fabricantes para a maioria dos sistemas de EEP implantados são bastante restritivas e resultam em longos tempos de exame ou em imagens de baixa qualidade, fatores que dificultam a prática em muitos centros. Estudos in vitro revelam que o aquecimento excessivo ocorre sob determinadas configurações, enquanto outras não oferecem risco fisiológico ao paciente. Estudos clínicos com base em vasta experiência sustentam a evidência de que é possível realizar exames pós-operatórios de forma satisfatória e sem a ocorrência de EAs utilizando parâmetros menos restritivos que aqueles determinados pelos fabricantes, desde que alguns padrões de segurança sejam cuidadosamente seguidos. Dessa forma, o presente trabalho propõe a elaboração de um PSP para a situação específica de pacientes com sistemas de EEP submetidos à exames de IRM no HMC, com base nas recomendações de segurança do fabricante e na revisão sistemática da literatura. De acordo com a base de dados consultada, um total de 26 artigos científicos foram considerados relevantes e permitiram identificar as possíveis fontes de risco de forma a evitá-las, colaborando com a conclusão satisfatória do PSP. Além de suprir a demanda local, o presente trabalho visou também promover a cultura de segurança do paciente e despertar a atenção para a necessidade de interposição de barreiras às diversas oportunidades de EAs que os setores de radiologia podem oferecer. A metodologia aqui proposta pode servir, ainda, de base para que outros centros de diagnóstico por imagem componham seus próprios PSPs. / In 2013, the National Program Patient Safety (PNSP) was implemented in Brazil through Resolution RDC 36, providing that the Brazilian health institutions must have a Patient Safety Plan (PSP) for situations that may lead to adverse events (AEs), which are unintentional injury or damage caused to the patient by the health care intervention and not by the primary disease. The PSP is a document with scientific basis that points to hazardous situations and describes strategies and actions defined by the health service for risk management in order to prevent and reduce AEs in all phases of patient care. Implantation of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) devices is considered a routine procedure at the Hospital Marcelino Champagnat (HMC), located in Curitiba – PR, and it consists in a practice widely used to improve symptoms and quality of life of patients with certain chronic neurological disorders.The reliability and accuracy of the final brain positioning of the leads, after the DBS implantation are of paramount importance to assure efficacy. Currently, post-operative Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is the gold standard for the documentation of the correct lead positioning. However, the interaction between the DBS system and the MRI radiofrequency field could represent an important source of adverse events (EAs) since it allows electric currents induction with potential to cause local thermal injuries on high resistance sites. The safety recommendations from the DBS system manufacturers for most of the already deployed systems are quite restrictive resulting in long examination times or low quality images, which compromises the practice in many centers. Thus, the present work proposes the development of a PSP based on the manufacturer's safety recommendations and a systematic review of the literature to the specific situation of patients with DBS systems undergoing MRI scans at the HMC. We found a total of 26 papers, that were considered relevant and allowed us to identify the potential sources of risk in order to avoid them, collaborating to the successful elaboration of the PSP. Besides supplying local demand, this work also aims to promote patient safety and draw attention to the need of interposing barriers in order to avoid significant AEs situations that a radiology department may be presented with. Moreover, the methodology proposed here can serve as a basis for other imaging centers to compose their own PSPs.

Neste trabalho, considera-se uma rede sem fio cooperativa em que múltiplas fontes com restrições energéticas cooperam para transmitir informações independentes a um destino comum. Assume-se também que toda a energia disponível nas fontes é captada a partir de transmissões de radiofrequência realizadas pelo destino (o qual é considerado não possuir restrições de energia), sendo dependente das condições instantâneas do canal. Dessa forma, estabelece-se um protocolo de comutação temporal em que em parte do tempo as fontes são carregadas pelo destino, e no restante do tempo transmitem as suas informações. Utilizando-se a probabilidade de outage comométrica de desempenho, analisa-se o desempenho de alguns protocolos cooperativos com transferência sem fio de energia, a saber: decodifica-e-encaminha(EDF), cooperação por codificação de rede (ENC) e cooperação por codificação de rede generalizada (EGNC). Expressões fechadas são desenvolvidas para calcular a probabilidade de outage dos protocolos cooperativos descritos acima, assim como o tempo de carregamento ótimo para minimizar a referida probabilidade e a máxima taxa alcançável para uma probabilidade de outage alvo, mostrando que o protocolo EGNC apresenta o melhor desempenho dentre os protocolos cooperativos considerados e que a transmissão direta (sem cooperação). Simulações numéricas são realizadas para se comprovar a precisão das expressões desenvolvidas e finalmente se enumeram sugestões para a continuação do trabalho. / In this work, we consider a multiuser cooperative wireless network where multiple energy-constrained sources have independent information to transmit to a common destination. The destination, which is assumed to be externally powered, is responsible for transferring energy wirelessly to the sources. The total amount of harvested energy is a function of instantaneous channel conditions. In this scenario, a time-switching protocol is developed where in a fraction of time the sources harvest energy and then use this energy to transmit information. Using the outage probability as a metric, we evaluate the performance of some energy transfer cooperative protocols, namely: energy transfer decode-and-forward (EDF), energy transfer network coding cooperation (ENC) and energy transfer generalized network coding cooperation (EGNC). We obtain a closed-form approximation for the system outage probability, as well as an approximation for the optimal energy transfer period that minimizes such outage probability showing that EGNC protocol presents the best performance among the considered protocols and when compared with the direct transmission. Numerical results are also presented to validate the theoretical results. Finally, suggestions about future works are presented.

Syfte: Studien ämnar att studera hur Internet of Things skulle kunna integreras för att minska potentiella brister i informationsflödet hos tillverkande företag. För att möjliggöra detta formulerades två forskningsfrågor:  <li data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="1" data-listid="12" data-font="Georgia,Serif" data-leveltext="%1.">Hur är informationsflödet utformat hos ett tillverkande företag med högt anpassade kundprocesser?  <li data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="1" data-listid="12" data-font="Georgia,Serif" data-leveltext="%1.">Vilka möjligheter ger Internet of Things för att minska potentiella brister i informationsflödet?  Metod: En förundersökning gjordes för att ge författarna en bild av studiens problemområde. Vidare genomfördes en litteraturstudie och en fallstudie. Litteraturstudien skapade studiens teoretiska ramverk och innehåller områden som Internet of Things, information, kommunikation, informationsflöde och informationssystem. Fallstudien genomfördes på ett stort tillverkande företag och bestod av dokumentstudier, observationer och en fokusgrupp. En sammankoppling av studiens teoretiska ramverk och empiri genererade studiens resultat.  Resultat: Företagets informationsflöde visade sig vara komplext och innehålla mycket manuell hantering av information. Något som visade sig ge konsekvenser för informationens pålitlighet, relevans och tidsperspektiv. Det finns därför förbättringsmöjligheter genom att integrera Internet of Things, då en digitalisering av informationsflödet skulle kunna leda till standardiserade processer samt en större och säkrare mängd delad information.  Implikationer: Teoretiskt bidrar studien genom att utvärdera hur Internet of Things kan bidra till nya sätt att arbeta med informationsflöden hos tillverkande företag. Studien visar detta genom att analysera viktiga aspekter inom ett nuvarande informationsflöde och Internet of things. Praktiskt bidrar studien med att identifiera potentiella förbättringsmöjligheter i ett företags informationsflöde genom en integration av Internet of Things.  Begränsningar: Studien är designad som en enfallsstudie vilket begränsar generaliserbarheten. Andra företag kan komma att behöva undersöka sina specifika förutsättningar för att dra nytta av studien. Generaliserbarheten ökar till viss del då Internet of Things är ett brett ämne och kan appliceras på ett stort antal områden. För att öka studiens tillförlitlighet har metodkapitlet noggrant utformats och beskrivits. / Purpose: This study aims to explore how Internet of Things could be integrated in manufacturing companies to reduce the potential inadequacy in an information flow. To achieve this, two research questions were formed:  <li data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="1" data-listid="13" data-font="Georgia,Serif" data-leveltext="%1.">How is the information flow designed in a manufacturing company that produces customer-specific products?  <li data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="1" data-listid="13" data-font="Georgia,Serif" data-leveltext="%1.">What possibilities does Internet of Things give information flow to reduce potential inadequac <p data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="2" data-listid="13" data-font="Times New Roman" data-leveltext="%1.">Method: A pilot study was conducted to help the authors create a picture of the study's problem area. Later a literature study and a case study were conducted. The literature study was conducted to create the theoretical framework and included areas such as Internet of Things, information, communication, information flow and information systems. The case study conducted at a large manufacturing company and was consisted document studies, observations and a focus group. The results of the study are generated through a pairing of the theoretical framework and empirical study.  <p data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="2" data-listid="13" data-font="Times New Roman" data-leveltext="%1.">Findings: The company's information flow was complex and contained a lot of manual management of information and communication. This turned out to create consequences for the information’s reliability, relevance, and timing. It has therefore been found that there are improvement opportunities through an integration of IOT in the information flow. A digitalization of an information flow can lead to creation of standard process and a larger and safer amount of shared information.  <p data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="2" data-listid="13" data-font="Times New Roman" data-leveltext="%1.">Implications: The study contributes theoretically by evaluating how IOT can contribute to innovative ways of working with information flows at manufacturing companies; this by analysing key aspects of a current information flow and IOT. Practically, the study contributes to identifying potential improvements by integrate IOT in a corporate information flow.  Limitations: The study is of a one-case-design which limits generalisability. Therefore, other companies may need to examine their specific requirements before taking advantage of the study. The generalization increases slightly due to the broadness of the term IOT and that it can be applied in a wide range of areas. The method chapter has been carefully designed and described to increase the study's reliability.

As tentativas de se conseguir um funcionamento contínuo para o tokamak e as perspectivas de estabilização de oscilações MHD através do controle do perfil de corrente, motivaram pesquisas que levassem a uma forma de geração de corrente não indutiva. Uma das possíveis alternativas para atingir esta meta é a injeção de ondas de alta freqüência como, por exemplo, ondas na freqüência híbrida inferior ou Lower Hybrid (LH), que impulsionam elétrons através do amortecimento de Landau na direção paralela ao campo magnético toroidal, tomando-os capazes de transportar corrente. Nos futuros reatores, entretanto, a absorção da onda pelas partículas de 3.5 MeV, conforme o que é previsto, e que ocorre através do amortecimento de Landau na direção perpendicular ao campo magnético, pode diminuir a eficiência do método descrito acima. Nosso objetivo, neste trabalho, é simular a interação LH-partículas com a interação entre a onda LHe os íons rápidos do plasma, que atingem até alguns MeV de energia e que são provenientes do aquecimento de íons de minoria pela onda ciclotrônica de íons (IC). Estes fenômenos podem ser descritos através de uma equação de Fokker-Planck uni-dimensional, no espaço de velocidades, onde os termos de difusão quase-linear, correspondentes à injeção das ondas IC e LH, estão presentes juntamente com os termos colisionais, que representam a termalização dos íons rápidos sobre um plasma maxwelliano. Apresentamos, aqui, as primeiras evidências experimentais da interação LH-íons rápidos no tokamak JET. A análise de dados foi baseada na observação do conteúdo energético dos íons de minoria e das taxas de emissão de raios e de nêutrons no plasma, toda vez que a onda LH estava presente simultaneamente ao aquecimento com ondas IC. Observamos, nesta situação, que há um aumento de cerca de 20% do conteúdo energético dos íons rápidos, que corresponde a uma potência da onda absorvida de até, aproximadamente, 25%, dependendo dos parâmetros do plasma. O aumento de emissão de raios e de nêutrons, provenientes das reações de fusão, também confrrmou o aumento de energia dos íons rápidos quando a onda LH estava presente. Análises com FFT em experimentos onde a potência da onda estava 100% modulada, propiciaram o estudo da absorção de potência da onda LH de acordo com os níveis de superposição dos dois perfis de deposição sobre o plasma (ICe LH). / Attempts to achieve a steady-state operation in a reactor regime and the possibilities of stabilising MHD oscillations by controlling the plasma current density profile motivated studies of different methods of generating non-inductive current in reactor scenarios. The injection of Lower Hybrid waves (LH) in tokamak plasmas is considered as a possible route to reach this goal and has been successfully employed to generate plasma current by transferring momentum to the electrons in the direction parallel to the magnetic field through Electron Landau Damping (ELD). However, in a reactor operation regime, LHCD (Lower Hybrid Current Drive) efficiency can be affected, as it is predicted, by the damping of the wave on the 3.5 MeV particles, produced during fusion reactions. This interaction occurs through perpendicular Landau Damping since the particles can be considered as unmagnetized. In this work, the interaction of LH waves with particles is simulated through the interaction between the LH wave and ICRH driven minority íons, that can reach energies up to few MeV. Both phenomena can be described by a 1-D Fokker-Planck equation in velocity space that includes both quasi-linear diffusion coefficients due to ICRH and LH waves and collision terms which represent the fast ions slowing-down over a maxwellian plasma Once this Fokker-Planck equation is solved, the fast ion distribution function can be obtained in order to provide information on the fast minority íons. The first experimental evidence of the interaction of LH waves with ICRH minority íons in the MeV energy range is presented in this work. This interaction was detected in JET through measurements of the fast ion energy, ray and neutron ernission rates and by means of Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analysis in experiments with 100% LH power modulation. An increase has been observed of approximately 20% in the fast ion energy content which corresponds about to 25% of LH power absorbed by the fast minority ions, depending on the plasma parameters. The increase of ray and neutron rates ernitted in the plasma and the FFT analysis confirm, respectively, the fast ion energy increase and a better damping of the wave when the overlap between IC and LH deposition profiles is maxirnized.

There is an ever increasing demand for higher spectral usage in wireless communication, radar and imaging systems. Higher spectral efficiency can be achieved using components that are aware of system environment and adapt suitably to the operating conditions. In this regard, radio frequency (RF) signal analysis is of paramount interest. Emergence of dispersive delay networks (DDN) has led to the significant development of microwave analogue-signal processing (ASP) and analysis. DDN causes displacement of spectral components in time domain, relative to the frequency dependant group delay response. The main challenge in the design of DDN in this context is in achieving broad bandwidth with high group delay dispersion (GDD). In this regard, all-pass networks (APN) have been explored as a potential wide-band DDN owing to the possibility of controlling the magnitude of loss characteristics without affecting the dispersion in group delay response. The synthesis procedure of lumped element APN using approximation methods is well known at audio frequencies. Most of these use operational amplifier and cannot be extended directly to RF. There is no generalised closed form analytical procedure at RF for the synthesis of APN with the required GDD. In this regard, this dissertation presents the design and implementation of all-pass networks as wide-band dispersive delay networks at radio frequencies. In this work, we begin by analysing the signal propagation through a DDN with a linear group delay response over a broad bandwidth. It is found that the signal experiences expansion of pulse width, reduction of its peak amplitude and a temporal displacement of the spectral components. Analytical expressions derived help initial synthesis of group delay response required for various ASP applications. As the first step towards implementation at RF, a single stage APN is designed using surface mount devices (SMD). This design approach takes into account practical issues such as parasitic due to mounting pads, available component values, physical dimensions, self-resonance frequency (SRF) and finite Q factor of the components used. Full wave simulation of the design with transmission line pads and components is carried out. This implementation is useful for frequencies up to the component SRF, generally about 5 GHz. This design approach makes the circuit footprint independent of frequency and the performance is limited only by the Q factor of the adopted technology. The Q factor affects the loss characteristics with a negligible effect on group delay response in the frequency band of interest. In order to extend the APN design for high group delay, a novel board level implementation is developed consisting of both lumped SMD components and distributed elements. The implementation results in a lower sensitivity of group delay performance to the commercially specified component value tolerances than the approach using all SMD components. It has been experimentally verified that the measured group delay is 2.4 ns at 1.85 GHz, which is thrice that reported in other approaches. The implementation has a reduced circuit footprint and is attractive in practical applications as it is a single layer micro strip realisation with less complex fabrication procedure and fewer components to assemble. As an extension of this towards wideband cascaded APN, an iterative design procedure is developed to achieve a monotonous group delay response over a broad bandwidth. The approach facilitates cascading of multiple stages of lumped APN with different resonance frequency and peak group delay to obtain linear and non-linear group delay responses with both positive and negative GDD. Circuits with both positive and negative GDD are required for various ASP applications such as compressive receivers and the present approach is unique in obtaining both the responses, not possible with many other RF dispersion techniques. Circuit models have been simulated by cascading transfer function responses of the individual APNs. The design is further extended for SMD implementation. To validate the above approach, a two stage APN is designed in the frequency range [0.5 - 1] GHz for a linear GDD of ±6 ns/GHz. Two negative GDD APNs are further cascaded to obtain a four stage implementation with an overall GDD of -12 ns/GHz. The experimental results are compared with full wave simulations for validation. The design using lumped SMD components has greatly improved the performance in terms of GDD with a reduced circuit footprint and lower insertion loss than previously reported approaches. As practical examples, the ASP modules are experimentally demonstrated using the fabricated APN. Frequency discrimination of two input frequencies with a frequency resolution of 500 MHz is demonstrated. Higher GDD results in higher separation of frequency components in time domain. Pulse compression and magnification is also demonstrated for different wideband LFM input signals. The dispersion effects of amplitude reduction, pulse width expansion and frequency chirping are thereby validated experimentally. In summary, the approaches presented in this dissertation enable the design of wideband all-pass networks to introduce dispersion delays over wide bandwidths, opening up the possibility for their use in analogue signal processing at radio frequencies. Some of these applications have been experimentally demonstrated and validated using time frequency analysis.

Cognitive radios require spectral occupancy information in a given location, to avoid any interference with the existing licensed users. This is achieved by spectrum sensing. Existing narrowband, serial spectrum sensors are spectrally inefficient and power hungry. Wideband spectrum sensing increases the number of probable fre-quency candidates for cognitive radio. Wideband RF systems cannot use analog to digital converters (ADCs) for spectrum sensing without increasing the sampling rate and power consumption. The use of ADCs is limited because of the dynamic range of the signals that need to be sampled and the frequency of operation. In this work, we have presented a CMOS based area efficient, dedicated and scalable wideband parallel/serial spectrum sensor for cognitive radio. The key contributions of the thesis are: 1. An injection locked oscillator cascade (ILOC) for parallel LO synthesis. An area-efficient, wideband RF frequency synthesizer, which simultaneously gen-erates multiple local oscillator (LO) signals, is designed. It is suitable for parallel wideband RF spectrum sensing in cognitive radios. The frequency synthesizer consists of an injection locked oscillator cascade where all the LO signals are derived from a single reference oscillator. The ILOC is implemented in a 130-nm technology with an active area of 0.017 mm2. It generates 4 uni-formly spaced LO carrier frequencies from 500 MHz to 2 GHz. 2. A wideband, parallel RF spectrum sensor for cognitive radios has been de-signed. This spectrum sensor is designed to detect RF occupancy from 250 MHz to 5.25 GHz by using an array of CMOS receivers with envelope detec-tors. A parallel LO synthesizer is implemented as an ILOC. The simulated sensitivity is around -25 dBm for 250 MHz wide bandwidth. 3. A mitigation technique for harmonic downconversion in wideband spectrum sensors. The downconversion of radio frequency (RF) components around the harmonics of the local oscillator (LO), and its impact on the accuracy of white space detection using integrated spectrum sensors, is (are) studied. We propose an algorithm to mitigate the impact of harmonic Down conversion by utilizing multiple parallel downconverters in the system architecture. The proposed algorithm is validated on a test-board using commercially avail-able integrated circuits (IC) and a test-chip implemented in a 130-nm CMOS technology. The measured data shows that the impact of the harmonic down-conversion is closely related to the LO characteristics, and that much of it can be mitigated by the proposed technique. 4. A wideband spectrum sensor for narrowband energy detection. A wideband spectrum sensing system for cognitive radio is designed and implemented in a 130-nm RF mixed-mode CMOS technology. The system employs an I-Q downconverter, a pair of complex filters and a pair of envelope detectors for energy detection. The spectrum sensor works from 250 MHz to 3.25 GHz. The design makes use of the band pass nature of the complex filter to achieve two objectives : i) Separation of upper sideband (USB) and lower sideband (LSB) around the local oscillator (LO) signal and ii) Resolution of smaller bands within a large detection bandwidth. The measured sensitivity is close to -45 dBm for a single tone test over a bandwidth of 40 MHz. The measured Image reject ratio (IRR) is close to 30 dB. The overall sensing bandwidth is 3.5 GHz and the overall wideband detection bandwidth is 250 MHz which is partitioned into 40 MHz narrowband chunks with 8 such overlapping chunks.

L’objectif principal de cette thèse est le développement de techniques de segmentation et de suivi totalement automatisées du ventricule gauche (VG) en RT3DE. Du fait de la nature difficile et complexe des données RT3DE, l’application directe des algorithmes classiques de vision par ordinateur est le plus souvent impossible. Les solutions proposées ont donc été formalisées et implémentées de sorte à satisfaire les contraintes suivantes : elles doivent permettre une analyse complètement automatique (ou presque) et le temps de calcul nécessaire doit être faible afin de pouvoir fonctionner en temps réel pour une utilisation clinique optimale. Dans ce contexte, nous avons donc proposé un nouveau cadre ou les derniers développements en segmentation d’images par ensembles de niveaux peuvent être aisément intégrés, tout en évitant les temps de calcul importants associés à ce type d’algorithmes. La validation clinique de cette approche a été effectuée en deux temps. Tout d’abord, les performances des outils développés ont été évaluées dans un contexte global se focalisant sur l’utilisation en routine clinique. Dans un second temps, la précision de la position estimée du contour du ventricule gauche a été mesurée. Enfin, les méthodes proposées ont été intégrées dans une suite logicielle utilisée à des fins de recherche. Afin de permettre une utilisation quotidienne efficace, des solutions conviviales ont été proposées incluant notamment un outil interactif pour corriger la segmentation du VG. / The fundamental goal of the present thesis was the development of automatic strategies for left ventricular (LV) segmentation and tracking in RT3DE data. Given the challenging nature of RT3DE data, classical computer vision algorithms often face complications when applied to ultrasound. Furthermore, the proposed solutions were formalized and built to respect the following requirements: they should allow (nearly) fully automatic analysis and their computational burden should be low, thus enabling real-time processing for optimal online clinical use. With this in mind, we have proposed a novel segmentation framework where the latest developments in level-set-based image segmentation algorithms could be straightforwardly integrated, while avoiding the heavy computational burden often associated with level-set algorithms. Furthermore, a strong validation component was included in order to assess the performance of the proposed algorithms in realistic scenarios comprising clinical data. First, the performance of the developed tools was evaluated from a global perspective, focusing on its use in clinical daily practice. Secondly, also the spatial accuracy of the estimated left ventricular boundaries was assessed. As a final step, we aimed at the integration of the developed methods in an in-house developed software suite used for research purposes. This included user-friendly solutions for efficient daily use, namely user interactive tools to adjust the segmented left ventricular boundaries.